What’s In The Bag?

Hello Everyone!

Today I have a very interesting post planned for y’all!  (Note: I do not say y’all in real life.  Promise!)  Lately I’ve been seeing numerous “purse posts” around Blog World.  In these “purse posts” the blogger simply opens up her purse, dumps all the junk contents out, takes pictures, and shares it with her readers. 

I don’t know about you, but I’m nosey and love seeing that kind of stuff! 

The Bag:

Coach (A Christmas gift from my Grandma!)♥

The Contents:

• Pen/Sharpie/Highlighter
• Victoria’s Secret  Lipgloss (Cake Batter & Berry flavors)
• School ID
• Loose change
• Clif Mini Chocolate Brownie bar (Ew, tastes terrible!)
• House keys
• Spare house keys
• Altoid Smalls
• Retainer case
• Bath & Body Works Hand Sanitizer (Apple flavor)
• Cell Phone (Samsung Solstice)
• Giftcards (Whole Foods, Lord & Taylor, American Eagle)
• Money
• Hand Sanitizer case (Stupidest thing ever! It was a gift.)
• Trader Joe’s receipt

If you think that’s a lot of stuff, you should see my Mom’s purse.  That thing weighs at least 20 pounds.  At least!  

Oh, and speaking of the Trader Joe’s receipt…

Trader Joe’s Goodies:

Note: I was being very restrained.  I could have easily bought the whole store!

• 2 boxes of Peanut Flour ♥
• Roasted Garlic Hummus

Ohmygosh!!!!!  The Peanut Flour is amazing!  It tastes almost exactly like regular peanut butter.  So close that I ate a few spoonfuls of the flour itself! Haha!

Plus the stats can’t be beat - 16 grams of protein?  Yes, please!

I know I’m rather late jumping on the Peanut Flour Bandwagon, but I’m thinking of making a Peanut Flour Round-up post so that Peanut Flour newcomers can have a plethora of ideas on how to use it.  That being said, does anyone know or have any Peanut Flour recipes that they want to be included?  Simply leave a link below and I will add it! I’m trying to include as many as possible so add as many as you want! I’ll be checking my SPAM folder regularly so that none will be forgotten.

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Questions of the Day:

1. What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever heard of someone carrying in their purse?  My purse is pretty normal, but my friend Emily carries a toothbrush in hers! Haha!
2. Do you know any good peanut flour recipes? If so, leave a link below! 

Hope everyone had a great Monday!

 

The Day That Keeps Getting Better

The title says it all.  I woke up to this.

Actually, I woke up to a small bowl of Kashi Go Lean and had a quick workout.

Workout:

• 1 mile speed walk
• 30 min. Wii Fit Plus (yoga)

But afterwards I had these pancakes from Jessica.

They were amazing!  Not healthy in any way at all, but amazing.  I highly recommend you make them! 

C’mon even Phil liked them.

Scratch that.  Even my Mom liked them and this is coming from the woman who eats a waffle with butter and sugar for breakfast everyday.

Speaking of my Mom, she also treated us to some shopping and Starbucks.  I got a Skinny Vanilla Bean Frapuccino. 

Later we are planning on hitting up Trader Joe’s for some Peanut Flour! I’m so excited!

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Questions of the Day:

1. What did you do today?
2. Any good peanut flour recipes?!

Have a great weekend!

No Flashback Friday?

Alright.  I know I promised you an “action-packed Flashback Friday” post today, but it’s not working out.  When I sat down tonight to start writing it I got major writer’s block and the post did not look good.  At all.  So instead of leaving you with a boring and ugly-looking post I decided to suck it up and post something else.  A recipe for those Chewy Nutella Cookies I was raving about the other day. 

Chewy Nutella Cookies

Slightly adapted from The Recipe Goldmine

“A decadent chewy chocolate hazelnut cookie.  You know you want one…and then another and another and another.”

Ingredients:

• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 ½ cups), melted
• ¾ cup brown sugar, packed
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup Nutella
• 1 egg + 1 additional egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1-2 cups dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325ºF and spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray.
2. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl.  Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended.  Mix in Nutella, egg, yolk, and vanilla extract.  Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined.  Stir in chips to taste.
4. Form cookie dough into golf ball-sized balls and place on the baking sheet. Bake until cookies are a light golden brown and edges begin to harden, while the centers are still soft and puffy, 13-18 minutes (depending on your oven.) Let cool.  Serve immediately or store for up to 4 days in an airtight container. (Not that they’ll last that long!)

Yield:  ~2 dozen cookies

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I wish I took more pictures of these cookies, but sadly they never found their way back home after the party.  They were all gone within the first 15 minutes!  I guess I can’t complain though.  It’s better than bringing them all home!

One thing that caught my attention at the party was that half of the class didn’t know what Nutella was!  Are these kids living under a rock?!  Someone tell me I’m not the only one obsessed with the stuff.  Please?

Went a little off-topic there for a moment.  Oh well.  Story of my life suppose.  Today I was in the middle of telling my friend about my shovelling experience when I randomly asked her how she liked English and if she was a good writer.  Weird.

OKAY ERIKA!  Back to the cookies!  Oh yeah, the cookies, how could I forget?  Here’s the recipe for the optional, yet highly recommended glaze.

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Nutella Glaze

Ingredients:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• ½ stick of butter, melted
• ¼ cup Nutella
• ¼ cup milk (add more milk for a runnier glaze and less for frosting)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.  Using an electric mixer (or a wire wisk) combine ingredients until they come to a creamy consistency.  Add more milk as needed. 
2. Heat in the microwave for 15-20 seconds and drizzle over cookies.  Enjoy!

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Once again, sorry for the lack of pictures.  I really should have planned this out better.  Instead I will share a few pictures of the RAW wrestling match Phil and I saw last Friday. 

Because nothing makes you crave Nutella more than a bunch of sweaty wrestlers?  Just roll with it…

* * * * *

Question of the Day:

1. Have you ever tried Nutella?  What’s your favorite way to enjoy it?  I’m a big fan of the spoon to mouth method.
2. What’s your favorite spectator sport?  Baseball first, wrestling second.  I watch RAW on TV every Monday!

Have an awesome weekend!  Thanks for reading! 

Taste Of Summer

Well, we got more snow…

…15.5 inches to be exact.

Ugh.  I love snow and all that jazz, but after a grand total of 50 inches of snow so far this year, I want summer to come fast!

Unfortunately, I don’t have any correspondence with Mother Nature which means the odds of that happening are very slim.  So I did the next best thing:  make summer-y foods!

For me smoothies, salads, and BBQ just scream summer.  They bring me back to the picnics and pool parties of the past.  I can almost smell the sunscreen and feel the warm summer air.  Almost. 

Assuming that most of my fellow northeastern Americans are in the same predicament, I decided to make and post the recipe for a family favorite.  My Creamy Tri-Color Pasta Salad.

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Creamy Tri-Color Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

• 4 cups cooked tri-color rotini pasta (~2 cups dry)
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
• ½ cup Vidalia onion, diced
• ½ cup Ranch dressing (I used Hidden Valley Light but you can make it yourself too!)
• ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, stir until all ingredients are well-distributed.  Refrigerate before serving. Enjoy!

It doesn’t get much easier than that! Plus when you take the first spoonful you’ll swoon.  Not that I’m being arrogant or anything…but it might just be the best pasta salad you’ll ever taste. Plus you can customize it and add even more yummy stuff.

Recommended Add-Ins:

• Broccoli
• Olives
• Corn
• Beans
• Peas
• Cherry tomatoes

Feel free to get creative! Anything is possible!

* * * * *

Question of the Day:

1. What’s your favorite season?  Mine’s fall.  There’s no humidity and the temperature is just right.
2. What’s you favorite potluck/picnic side dish? 

Now if you’d excuse me, I have a 10-year-old punk brother to beat in a snowball fight.

TGIF tomorrow! Look forward to an action-packed Flashback Friday!



Jay Robb Whey Protein Review

Protein Powder.

Before Blog World I thought it was just for bodybuilders.  Boy, was I wrong!

Once I started reading more and more blogs, I started finding more and more delicious ways to use the stuff.

• Protein Cakes
• Protein  Ice Cream
• Protein Milkshakes
• Protein Pancakes
• Protein Banana Bread
• Protein Smoothies
• Protein PanCakes (large pancakes or mini cakes)

The list goes on and on…

Ever since I discovered the wonderful stuff and all that I can do with it I’ve been trying to find the best tasting stuff I can find.  Thankfully, Jay Robb heard about my dilemma and offered to send me some samples.  Yes, please! 

♥Jay Robb Whey Protein Powder Review♥

…but first some interesting information about Jay Robb products.

 

Jay Robb’s Whey Protein is made from the finest natural ingredients available and delivers 25 grams of first class protein, 0-fat, 0-cholesterol, 0-sugars, and only 1 gram of carbohydrate per 30 gram serving. Only cold-processed cross-flow microfiltered whey protein isolate is used as the protein source and this material comes from farm-raised, pasture-grazed, grass-fed cows not treated with the synthetic bovine growth hormone rBGH. 

 

 

Sounds pretty good, right?  Let’s see how they tasted…

 

Chocolate:  This was the first flavor that I tasted and it gave me a great impression of what was to come.  The flavor was excellent.  It didn’t have that protein powder-y aftertaste that some protein powders have and was extremely chocolate-y.  The only bad part of this flavor was that it was gritty.  It might have just been because I stirred it into oatmeal though.  I’m sure it would be less gritty in a smoothie or shake.

Vanilla:  This flavor was also good! I didn’t like it as much as the chocolate flavor mostly because I’m a chocoholic though.  I enjoyed this in Protein PanCake form and it baked and fluffed up well. Unfortunately, it did have a tiny bit of an aftertaste, but it was nothing that a little extra cinnamon couldn’t fix.

Strawberry:  I enjoyed this in a Strawberries ‘N’ Cream Smoothie and it was delicious! I loved it! It seriously tasted like a strawberry milkshake and was pretty thick due to the fact that the powder contained a bit of xanathan gum. Again the only problem was that it had a small aftertaste.

Tropical Dreamsicle:  This was definitely the favorite of the bunch.  It was flavorful, summer-y, and had NO aftertaste!  I enjoyed it in smoothie form and I could have sworn I was sipping on a melted Orange Creamsicle.  YUM!

Piña Colada:  If I’d had to pick a favorite mocktail I would definitely choose the Piña Colada.  They’ve become one with summer and I felt like I was back at the beach while I was sipping on my Piña Colada protein smoothie.  The flavor was spot on and was aftertaste-free.

Overall:  I’m not gonna beat around the bush here:  Jay Robb Whey Protein Powder is amazing! I loved all of the flavors and would gladly buy more and recommend them to all of my friends.  I even had my 10-year-old brother fooled.  I gave him a protein smoothie and he couldn’t even tell there was protein powder in it.  Shhhh, don’t tell him, he still doesn’t know!

Overall Grade:    A

Thanks Jay Robb! 

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Questions of the Day:

• What is your favorite flavor/brand of protein powder?  How do you use it?  I love my Jay Robb protein powder, but I’m still curious!  Feel free to leave links for protein-packed recipes as well!

Have a great Wednesday!

PS – Has anyone tried dessert protein powder?  (Cookies ‘N Cream, Cake Batter, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, etc.)  I feel like I’ve seen them all over Blog World but can’t seem to find anywhere to buy them!